Jessica Lalowski sat shoulder to shoulder with Paula Collier in the audience section of a Winnebago County courtroom on Tuesday, occasionally comforting Collier by placing a hand on Collier’s back.

As Collier left the courtroom, Lalowski stayed by her side in a protective role while I asked Collier whether she wanted to comment on the sentencing of Rico Jefferson, 24.

Jefferson had been charged with murder in the shooting death of her 18-year-old son, Dwayne C. Buchanan, at a gas station on Auburn Street in 2012. And he’d just been sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to a lesser charge, aggravated discharge of a firearm against a different man involved in the same confrontation that took her son’s life. Collier didn’t want to comment about the sentencing.

But she gave me her phone number and later agreed to talk about her relationship with Lalowski, a victim’s advocate with the Victim Service Provider program of the Winnebago County State’s Attorney’s Office.

“She is there, more or less, to ease my pain, and Jessica is very wonderful,” Collier said. “They treat you as part of their family,” she said, referring to Lalowski and other victim advocates in the program.

The eight advocates provide resources that help prepare victims for court proceedings and assist them through the process. From what I’ve seen covering trials the past several months, advocates are as much a staple in the courtroom as judges, attorneys, bailiffs, witnesses and defendants, though they sit in the gallery with victims. About nine of 10 cases — everything from murder to domestic violence to serious traffic offenses — that the Winnebago County State’s Attorney’s Office handles are “touched in some way” by the Victim Service Provider program, State’s Attorney Joe Bruscato said.

That hasn’t always been the case.

The state Rights of Crime Victims and Witnesses Act, adopted in 1984, changed the landscape. The rights of victims always have been “important, but not always organized in a formal, comprehensive approach,” Bruscato said. “The approach is so much more enhanced than it was.”

The annual budget for the advocates program in Winnebago County is $260,000, with about $63,000 coming from the county’s general fund and the rest from state and federal grants. The advocates typically hold a bachelor’s degree in social work or a closely related human services field. They maintain relationships with witnesses, the police and fire departments, and the crime lab.

In addition to accompanying victims to court, advocates help arrange transportation to court, let victims know when criminals are transferred from one prison to another, are scheduled for parole hearings or are released, and connect them with counseling services and support groups.

Page 2 of 2 - The Winnebago County Victim Service Provider program helped Toccara Byrd apply for victim compensation through the state. It reimbursed her, among other things, for time lost at work for her mother’s funeral. Her brother, Franklin T. Byrd, was sentenced in March to 86 years in prison for killing their mother, Leslie Byrd, in 2009.

Barb Stone was Toccara’s advocate, and she hugged Toccara during Franklin’s court proceedings.

“It was helpful, because I did not have any relatives to sit with me,” Toccara said. “I didn’t want my (younger) sister there,” she said, referring to her desire to protect her sibling from details of their mother’s shooting death.

Advocate Lalowski said her job is rewarding.

“You feel important helping people through the system.” Even so, it can be “emotionally exhausting,” she said. “You are taking on the pain and anxiety of people you are trying to help.”

Lalowski will be in court with Collier again on April 21. That’s when Martell L. Buckley will be sentenced for the shooting death of Buchanan, the youngest of Collier’s five children. Buckley was found guilty in December of three counts of first-degree murder.

I’ll be sitting behind Lalowski and Collier, glad that the system is working on behalf of victims with a nice touch and more.